Can’t

Once again, I am viscerally struck by how devastating the use of the phrase “I can’t” is to the person uttering it.

Those two simple words create an energy field around the user of hopelessness, helplessness, and victimhood. Projected into the world each time it is spoken or thought, this phrase ultimately gives away self-will, self-determination, and one’s own inner power to some unidentified, ephemeral “something” outside oneself.

A side result of this phrase is that it appears to be a decision. It is not. “I can’t” stimulates and feeds continuous rounds of second guessing; all of the whys you cannot do whatever; all of the arguments; all of the excuses used to defend your reasons for saying “I can’t.” Perhaps one of the worst effects of using this phrase is that you open the door to others to feel they have the right to demand explanations, defenses, or reasons as to what is, in effect, a kind of refusal to do what has been asked or suggested.

And how easy it is to fall into its use. We have all been trained to avoid declaring “I will not,” or “I choose not to,” “I’ve decided not to,” or “no.” We do not, after all, wish to be seen as uncaring, lazy or selfish in society’s eyes, therefore we claim inability or incapacity.

How challenging it is to walk away from “I can’t,” even knowing the harm this phrase does. And what a challenge to, as a friend of mine was want to say, put on your big-girl panties and say “no.” You might add, as a sap to those who are pushing you, “Thank you for asking me, my decision is no.”

When you declare, “I choose not to…” or “I will not do…” or “I’ve decided not to…” or even a simple “no,” you have claimed your right to decide and have left little or no room for discussion or need to defend your decision with explanations.

It might be well to remember that your throat (5th chakra) is often referred to as the chakra of making. It is also the seat of the blue body, the matrix for the physical body. The vibrations and emotions carried in the words you say (and in the thoughts you think) are actually manifested in the world as your experiences, and strengthen or weaken the matrix. “I can’t” creates the experiences of victimization, of indecision, and of incompetence.

If the only major change you make in your life is to stop using the phrase “I can’t,” you will have come a very long way toward your personal healing, improving your well-being, increasing your self-confidence, and regaining your personal power. Just say “no.” After all, you have only your victimhood to lose.

                                                        Blessings,
                                                                                Charlotte

edited by Monique Huenergardt of MoReadsYou.com

I thought to stand upon the Hermit’s hill,
Hold high the beacon and o’er light the path below.
Instead I am the Hermit’s star,
The light within the Lamp,
Suspended from the Eternal’s hand.
C.T. 10/94

Woman to Woman

I firmly believe that if women are to free themselves from explicit and implicit biases and abuses, they must come together and free themselves. No one else can free us or give us the equity or equality to which every human being is entitled.

One of the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, attitudes I’ve been hearing is that no white woman can really understand the life of a black woman.

While this belief, stated or implied, is accurate, it is also accurate to recognize that no black woman can really understand what it is to be a white woman. Actually, no woman from any ethnic, religious, or cultural background can really understand what it means to be a woman of a different ethnic, religious, or cultural background. Every grouping, regardless of how they are categorized, is unique unto itself, just as every woman within a grouping is unique unto herself. While such statements are accurate, they are also divisive. They create walls that can neither be scaled nor demolished, leaving all parties with a need to make a better world together and no way of doing so. When women are able and willing to set aside such divisions, they can honestly understand the “female” experiences which, while uniquely individual, we all have in common.

Let’s start with the two big “M”s: menses and menopause. These two physical, natural events change a woman’s life forever. At the very least, they take her into childbearing and out of childbearing. It doesn’t matter if she is mentally or emotionally ready. And, it is sad to say that many girls/women are not taught (or supported) about either of these physical changes with the attendant mental, emotional, and psychological changes and demands. Woman-to-woman education and support is all too often sketchy at best or absent all together. Ignorance or misinformation of these two most basic experiences in our lives makes us victims, afraid, uncertain, and vulnerable to abuse.

What else does every woman have in common with every other woman? Childbearing, by choice or not by choice, by chance or planned, changes a woman’s life forever. The yearning or not yearning for children, the desire to mother or not to mother is a world-wide common choice shaping a woman’s life. The decision to mother cannot be a substitute for having someone to love or be loved by. It is a 20-year commitment to raise self-confident, healthy, curious, creative, happy children who will discover themselves and make their own way as adults in the world, capable of creating a world in which they wish to live, and perhaps have children themselves.

Every woman has her own personal need or desire for relationship. There is a basic commonality in the ways that women relate to others and each other, and in how they seek and sustain relationships; relationships of ALL kinds that serve and enrich the many facets of their lives.

Like it or not, recognized or not, wanted or not, regardless of what it looks like, the woman is the heartbeat, the central pole of power in every family grouping. She colors the attitudes, ideas, actions, confidence (or lack thereof), and creativity of every member of the family group, for better or worse. She holds the moral and ethical center of a family, of a community, and ultimately of the world.

As a woman reaches beyond any apparent divisions, she comes into her own identity and discovers her own power, and truly become a light to the world around her.

Blessings,
                                   Charlotte

THE LANGUAGE MAGICIAN: Change “Women’s Rights” to “Human Rights for Women” (or people living with disabilities, or people with health issues, etc.)

edited by Monique Huenergardt of MoReadsYou.com

I thought to stand upon the Hermit’s hill,
Hold high the beacon and o’er light the path below.
Instead I am the Hermit’s star,
The light within the Lamp,
Suspended from the Eternal’s hand.
                           ct 10/94

Un-churched

Unchurched is a term that was used during several Presidential elections referring to those of us who are not officially affiliated with a church or religion. The implication, by tone of voice and physical and facial stance, was that the unchurched were somehow not spiritual or moral and therefore were to be looked down upon. While it may be true that those of us who are unchurched are not affiliated with a church or official religion, we are not necessarily agnostic or atheist. We ARE, in our own ways, spiritual and moral.

Personally, I do not consider myself to be a Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Muslim, or a Wiccan, or an Agnostic, or an Atheist, or even a Spiritualist.

I do, however, hold myself to a high standard of spiritual integrity and morality which, while simple (maybe even simplistic), is a challenge to follow.

* I believe that God expresses and experiences Itself through and as everything; conscious, subconscious, superconscious, and what we think of as unconscious (rocks, whatever we call nature, mosses and plankton, animals (vertebrates and invertebrates), insects, people, stars, black holes, the spaces between atoms, machinery, furniture, etc.).

* I posit every thought and every action from the paradigm that God is all there is. Not that there is only one god but that there is ONLY God. (Say the two phrases to yourself, or out loud, and feel the difference!)

* God is Love; Perfect Love, if you will. Therefore, I look upon the world’s activities as Perfect Love in action, or unfolding, regardless of what it looks like.

* I am a proponent of equity. Not equality, for humans are not equal in skills or capacity, interests or needs. They are, however, equal in value. I particularly like this statement from the Marin Health and Human Services site: “Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that a person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.”

* I claim the right and the accompanying responsibility to be who I am without defending or explaining myself, and therefore give that same right (and responsibility) to everyone else, without judgment.

* I consider that the magical mix of human vagaries, faults, failings, generosity, and creativity of people are what makes them human, humane, and beautiful, and should be celebrated often. (Quan Yin calls them/us Humans-in-Being.)

I follow these paradigms to the best of my ability on any given day, or moment. I am grateful when I do, and forgive myself when I don’t, and am at peace with myself in any case. I wish the same for each of you!

Blessings,
                                    Charlotte

edited by Monique Huenergardt of MoReadsYou.com

To Be Wise

How often have I been at a total loss for words in the face of someone’s pain, fear, loss, distress? Often.

And how often have I suddenly, and without planning or conscious choice, heard myself saying the deeply caring and wise words that may lead to healing? Not often enough, yet I always recognize when it happens. It is an experience that cannot be categorized or missed. It has its own life and comes in its own way and its own time.

I have often wondered where this “wisdom” comes from, especially since I seldom remember what was said. I do always remember the deep feeling of connection and a sense of rightness. And then, this year, I discovered this simple, beautiful Christmas song by John Denver.

“It’s in every one of us to be wise.
Find your heart, open up both your eyes.
We can all know everything without ever knowing why.
It’s in every one of us, by and by.”

It rang true, as some songs often do for me. Wisdom does not really arise from understanding, or knowledge, training or information. It likely can be bolstered or seeded by our personal experiences but is not linked directly to them. I am firmly of the mind that it comes from a wide-open heart. Not that I open my heart on purpose, mind you, though the practice of standing behind my heart may help. It is those times when, confronted by a deep, soul-need of the person in front of me, a need that is often not recognized by either of us, that my heart simply opens without my planning or agreement, and wisdom pours out. I have come to the conclusion that this unexpected wisdom is an expression of Soul-Love.

The first time I remember this happening, this soul-to-soul response, was in group therapy at Rancho Pino. It was in response to the deep sadness and fear of a young man about being an emotional doormat to others.

I don’t know what his reaction was, though I noticed in later sessions that he seemed to have turned a corner. I, however, was struck in terror! I didn’t understand what had happened, and I was enrage that it had, especially enraged because I didn’t know what had happened. Even now, I can see and hear myself yelling, “I don’t want it”, over and over again, and swinging my purse around and around.

My therapist kept ducking to keep from being hit and saying, “It’s alright, Charlotte.”
I finally stopped, turned to her and said, “It means I?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“I don’t want I?” I asked in confused tears.

“Yes.”

“What happened?” I finally asked.

“You touched souls” she said, and I knew exactly what she meant.

Beneath my terror and my rage was something so deeply, sweetly “right” that I simply accepted the experience as possible and my own.

I have since come to honor and embrace that part of me that opens up soul-to-soul when in the presence of soul-need. I have finally come to accept that wisdom makes itself known without me, only through me. I have finally come to accept that I am not in control of such occasions. My work with Quan Yin has helped, that’s for sure. The depth and richness of our channeling sessions is dependent upon the depth and richness of the issues or questions brought to Quan Yin. Just as the depth and richness of those who share their loss or pain will open my heart beyond my conscious decision and pour out the love and wisdom that is part of each one of us.

It IS, indeed, in everyone of us to be wise, to open our hearts and to let that wisdom pour out without ever knowing how we know, or why.

Thank you, John, for putting that beautiful, awe-full experience in such simple terms!

Blessings,
Charlotte

The Language Magician

While there is verity to the old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me,” it would be more accurate to say, “your words will never hurt me.” My words to myself or to you will and do either hurt me or heal me. The subconscious hears and sees everything as a projection, extension, or reflection of itself, therefore the only “you” there is, is a projection of the “me” I AM,

While “everything outside of you is a mirror for something inside of you” may be correct English, it somehow lacks the energy and impact of Quan Yin’s, “ There is nothing outside of you that is not a mirror of what is inside of you.” It is from this perspective that The Language Magician will an added feature of The Hermit’s Lamp.

For April, 2023: Every time you hear or say the phrase “Public Servant”, change it to “Serving the public”.
Notice how your energy changes, and how you see others and yourself with this simple, magical change of phrase.

edited by Monique Huenergardt of MoReadsYou.com

Letter to a Friend

Dear friend,
I suspect I may think of “oneness” differently than some of you. I think of us (humans) NOT as “one” or the same. We obviously are NOT the same, and often not even similar in how we react or respond to each other and to life in general.

I DO experience, and therefore believe, that a single, perhaps unifying, Creative Energy is in and flows through everything: people, plants, animals, rocks, air, water, stars, etc. One might think of each person or thing as a complex, individual piece of a single puzzle.

More deeply, my own experience might best be described in this way. While I’m speaking specifically of human persons, my experience includes everything that has its being in “manifest form” at some level.

I envision a huge disco ball made up of innumerable mirrored facets. Creative Energy is not only within the ball, the ball actually emanates from this Creative Energy.
Each person (and thing) is a single facet of the ball through which Creative Energy expresses and experiences Itself.

I suspect that a large part of the Spiritual Path is not about discovery, becoming, or uniting with “god” (Creative Energy by whatever name you may choose to address it). It seems to me the goal, if you will, of the Spiritual Path is to become more and more aware of the Creative Energy which expresses and experiences Itself through the individual facet that is the complex, individual I AM that is you. As I get better at this, the less alone or separated I feel.

I feel (experience) myself as part of a greater Whole. I don’t get lost in the mass of Wholeness, or Union. Somehow the very fact of my individuality enhances both I and Thou (as opposed to Me and You/Thee), both me as and individual and Creative Energy as a Whole.

I think people fear to lose themselves if they pursue a Spiritual Path, and, instead, become lost in the pain of separation and abandonment. And, feeling lost, sink deeper and deeper into fear and rage and self (and other) destruction.

It hurts my heart to watch, and feel, the self-destruction of others. It especially hurts as I realize more and more clearly that I, as one of the complex individual facets, do not have the capacity to stop another’s’ self-destruction.

I can stay as true to that expression and experience of Creative Energy pouring through the facet I AM at any given moment. I am grateful that these given moments are more and more joined and consistent.

I can step back from judgment and hold that every facet is, at heart, an expression and experience of Creative Energy. Quan Yin expresses this concept as, “You are both Creator and Created, one and at the same time.”

I can encourage you to explore your own individuality (individual facet).

I can encourage you to embrace your own facet of “The I Am, which is my true self” to the degree that you are willing and able.

I can encourage you to love, honor, appreciate, and cherish who and what you are every day.

I can love and appreciate you as an individual AND as an expression of The Whole.
And, I do.

                                                                  Blessings,
                                                                                      Charlotte

edited by Monique Huenergardt of MoReadsYou.com

Love Is …

I have a friend who, unapologetically, states she has absolutely no interest in ‘loving everybody’! I laugh because I actually understand where she is coming from. I appreciate her forthrightness and it presents me with another opportunity to cogitate again on the concept or the experience of love.

I start with remembering Quan Yin’s premise that love is not something you have or don’t have. It is a verb, an action or experience consciously chosen daily. And it is not something you can earn or lose. For Quan Yin, and finally for me, Love is a given.

Love does not hurt! Neither loving someone nor being loved by someone hurts. Not even that marvelous, exhilarating and sometimes surprising experience of being “in love” hurts. The experience of love, and of being “in love”, leaves a warm and sweet memory, even when it has passed. Too often people feel hurt, fear, pain, dread, or loss and blame it on “love”; the loss of love or the absence of love.

The fear of never experiencing love can and does hurt, especially if there is an under-lying belief that one does not deserve love. It is, however, “fear”’ that is being experienced, neither love nor the absence or loss of love. The loss, or passing on, of love, need not hurt, unless you have chosen to keep the loss instead of the love.

Since everything you have ever experienced is stored in the collagen in your body, and imprinted on the Akashic Records, you need only recall the memory of love to re-experience it. Since love leaves an imprint of openness, warmth, peace, and safety, it doesn’t seem to matter if the experience is personal or impersonal; person to person or person to Creator.

Perhaps it is the pragmatist in me that wonders why, for heaven’s sakes, would anyone choose to remember and re-experience pain or loss instead of love.

I believe that we always have a choice as to which memories we bring forward into our current lives. I choose to bask in the warm memories of love I shared with others as well as love I was showered with by others. These are the memories that fill my heart and make my world a wondrous and awesome place to live. Coincidently, these same memories are like a magnet which draws more opportunities to love and be loved into my life.

I suspect that much of the confusion about love is a plethora of meanings for the word (not the actual experience), and the projected expectations of the experience. Just cast your mind to the movies, stories, songs, operas, books, etc. that all seem to put love on a pedestal that is all too often dashed to the ground leaving behind pain and loss and hurt!

I think of love as the underlying meaning behind Namasté, which can be loosely translated as: That which is Divine within me greets and acknowledges that which is Divine within you.
Or
Aloha: (Alo: presence and Ha: breath) The presence of breath, or breath of life. This quote attributed by Roberts Hawaii to the late Queen Lil’uokalani, resonates with me as being as applicable to love as to Aloha; “Aloha is to learn what is not said, to see what cannot be seen and to know the unknowable.” What a beautiful description for the experience of love!

If we are to actually move into and live from Fifth Dimension consciousness, we must remember that the Divine Creator is at the heart of every human, even those who exhibit the most reprehensible actions or behaviors.

So, while we may not be able to ‘love everyone’, we can respect everyone as a fellow, faulted, human. We can honor the Devine which enlivens all manifested life. We can acknowledge the “enemy” as human, or as a creation of the same Devine Creator that created you, and them, and Nature.

Quan Yin embodies the love she presents herself as: she is the personification of unconditional, uncompromising, steadfast love. It is this ‘love’, by any other name, she encourages us to practice. And, like every practice, the more we choose to do it, the more we actually Become it. Practice ‘love’ by whatever name you choose to call it, and you, too, will soon Become Love, and need not name it anything, for you will BE it!

Happy Namasté, Aloha, Divinity, Valentine Day.

                                                                              Blessings,
                                                                                        Charlotte

A Delicate Balance

Dealing with a Universal Vibration of Seven this year will, I suspect, take a delicate balance. It will be important to navigate becoming more engaged in the “real” world and the need to spend quality and regular time in the inner world.

Withdraw your energy from those people, events, ideas and actions you do not agree with. Fill with energy those people, events, ideas and actions you DO agree with.

When you indulge in anger, shouting (aloud or silently) disparaging thoughts or remarks, attempting to convince others they are wrong, you simply fill them full of energy, and they and their ideas are fed and continue to hold sway over others.

The best way to get rid of what you do not want is to starve it to death. Replace the feelings of anger or despair with “Bless your on your path”, or Ho’oponopno, or Gratitude Practice, or the Mantra “Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti”. (Peace)

Of course, to do this effectively you will need to move out of judgment (which creates Karma) and move into discernment** (which neutralizes Karma). As an observer of events, you can then consciously choose to either add or withdraw your energy (attention).

Remember to make time every day to withdraw your attention and actions and contemplate all that has occurred. Seek the deepest Wisdom, Truth, Knowledge and Peace that reside within your deep subconscious, and make themselves known to you through your intuition.

Blessings,
                                                                                          Charlotte

**See page 32 in my book “A Bear Gun”.

They Didn’t Know Who He Was

“Sweet little Holy child, we didn’t know who you were.” (Robert MacGimsey)

“We didn’t know who you were”. What a heart-breaking statement about the state of the human race. It so succinctly expresses our incapacity, or unwillingness, to see every person as a true expression of Perfect Love.

Our social, religious, and educational cultures, tend to highlight those whose lives, in some way, stand out. We hold them up as role models, as the epitome of who we are to look up to, to emulate.

Jesus, Buddha, Mohamad, Quan Yin, Mother Teresa, Padre Pio, Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Gandhi, Maya Angelou; the list goes on and on as people we should be like! People whom we ‘didn’t know who they were’ at birth.

As harbingers of a world order change, whatever the accuracy of their histories, their lives have been seen as a turning points in civilization, spiritual as well as secular. Their lives DID herald a major changes in the larger cycles of the world we live in.

I experience each of us, you and me, friends and enemies, as that same “holy child” and am starkly aware that we “didn’t know who they were”.

You, specifically, may not be – or appear to be – a catalyst for the major changes we are all experiencing. Or are you?

You are the Sweet Holy Child living among us. As you discover who you are, and live from that knowledge, you too, in a quiet and subtle way, create change and healing in the world around you. You too ignite, in your own quiet way, the Love you came from and have always been. You, too, become a living example of the Peace which passeth all understanding.

I believe that when we choose to recognize the “holy child” we are, and embrace that same “holy child” in each other, we have changed the course of civilization, the consciousness of the world.

My Christmas wish for you is that you “know who you are”!

                                                                                   Blessings,
                                                                                                Charlotte

On The Bay

I sit at the ocean – at the bay, and listen to the sound of the waves upon the shore. As I watch the constant turmoil, smell the acrid-fresh air and feel the moisture on my skin and in my lungs, I know that anything – NO! Everything, is possible. After all, it is from this same roiling cauldron of sea, (a pale reflection of that greater “ocean” which Quan Yin names the “void that is full”), that Life itself evolved.

As I soften the boundaries of skin and mind to to become one with, I connect to the waters of the bay outside me, the bay within me, and the void that contains both. I know, beyond doubt, that everything, including me, is not only possible, it is unfolding before my very eyes.

A November Practice

As the days draw down into darkness (remembering that the Southern Hemisphere is gaining Light), you may wish to light a tea light or small candle each evening as a reminder that the Light is always present; present in you, present in me, present in everyone and everything. Something to definitely be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

                                           Blessings,                                                                                                                                              Charlotte

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING,
I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS WHATSOEVER.

“Thank you for everything, I have no complaints whatsoever”, what a powerful statement!

It is an antidote to the poisons of the daily news, of a crumbling world filled with loss, abandonment and death. It subverts an eroding loss of faith; faith in a god of love, in the goodness of people, in our capacity to create and live at peace within ourselves and with others.

This statement has the power to shift us from judgment of self and of others to observation, to discernment, and puts us in the path of grace and kindness, both in thought and action.

As a statement of fact, an affirmation, or a mantra, it immediately puts “paid” to the past and leaves the door open for the future to unfold as it will.

In the face of crisis, fear, doubt, pain or anger, a few rounds of this statement changes the energy, moves you to your heart center, grounds you in your own integrity, and shifts how you relate to the current event. My own experience suggests that, at the same time, this ‘statement of fact’ heals my own past traumas and fears.

“Thank you for everything, I have no complaints whatsoever”, recognizes and reinforces one of Quan Yin’s foundation teachings:

                                                                 There is only Perfect Love, even if it doesn’t look like it.

During these days when we are all navigating a totally dysfunctional world, my ‘prescription’ for gaining emotional, mental and spiritual resilience is to do three to five rounds of “Thank you for everything, I have no complaints whatsoever” at least three times a day.

                                                                 Blessings,
                                                                              Charlotte